The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-04-15

Will ne3tne1iz0 Us IL Is question NOT
more for the Christian than for the phil
osopher and statesman.
Obi II we could have allthese suffering
little ones gathered together. what . scene
Of hun ger, and wretchedness, and rags,
and sin, and trouble, and darkness.
II We could see those lite feet on
the broad road to death, which. through
Christian charity, ought to be press
ing the narrow path Of life; II we
could hear those voices in blasphemy.
which ought to be singing the praise OF
God: il we could see those little hearts,
which at that age ought not to be soiled
with one unclean thought, becoming the
sewers for every abominatlon; IL We
could SEQ these suffering little ones sacrf
sion, and baptized with fire from the lava
OF the pit. we would recoil, crying out:
'.Avaunt. thou dream Of hellr'
They are not always going to be chill
dren. Thew are coming up to be the men
and women of this country. That spark
| of iniQuity that might now be put out
with one drop Of the water Of life will be-
come the condagration Of every green
thing that God ever planted in the soul.
That which ought to have been temple
| Of the Holy Ghost will become a SCARED
| and blistered ruin-every fight Quenched
and every altar in the dust That petty
| thief, who slips into your stores and
takes yard Of your cloth from your
counter, will become the hishwayman Of
| the forest, or the burglar at midnight.
| picking the lock of your money safe and
blowing up your store to hide the vil!ainy.
A great army, with staggering step, and
bloodshot eye and drunken boot, they are
coming on-gathering recruits from every
grog- shop and den of infamy in the land,
| to take the baliOt-boX and hurrah at the
elections.
The hard-knuckled fist of rufianism will
have more power than the gentle hand Of
| intelligence and sobrIety. Men, bloated,
| and with the signature Of SIN burned in
| from the top of the forehead to the bottom
Of the chin, will look honest men out of
counteuance. Moral corpses, which ought
| to be buried hundred feet deep to keep
them from poisoning the air, will rot in
| the face of the sun at monday. ndustry,
| in her plain frock, will be unap-
preciated, while thousands Of men
will wander around IN idleness, with their
hands on their hips, saying: ''The world
| owes US living" o, what a tremendous
| power there is in iniQuity when unedu-
Gated, and unrestrained, and unblanched
| it goes on concentrating and deepening
and widening, and gathering nome ntum,
until it swings ahead with very triumph
Of desolation, drowning like surgas,
! scorching like flames, crushing like rocks
What are you going to do with this
| abandoned population Of he streetss
| Will you gather them in your churches!
1t IS not the will of your Heavenly Father
that one Of these little ones should perish.
If you have ten respectable children in
your class, gather in ten that are not re-
] spectacle. II in your Bible class there
be twenty young men who have
como from Christian homes and ele-
| CANT surroundings, let those twenty young
men go out and gather in twenty more Of
! the young men of the city who are lost to
God and lost to society. This outside pop
ulation, unless educated and restrained,
will work error in ages that are to come.
| Years ago, at New Orleans, when the
cholera was raging fearfully. a steam boat
put out just before nightfall, crowded
with passengers who were trying to es-
cape from the pestilence. After the boat
had been out little while the engineer
fell with the cholera. The captain, in con.
sternation, went down among the passen-
| gers and asked:
as there any one here who knows any
thing about engineeriug?'
! A swarthy man replied: 81 am an on
gineer" .
well" said the captain. II would be
very glad if you would take charge of this
boat
The man went to the engine. The
steamer moved more rapidly, until, after
I hi. Ly, ~t,,,,
were alarmed, and they went to see wha,
was the matter, and they found that this
was maniac engineer. and that he was
seated on the safety valve; and as they
| came to him he said:
| Il am commissioned OF Satan to drive
| this steamer to hellw
And he fiourished his pistol, and woult
not come down. But after awhile, through
some stratagem he was brought from his
position, and the lives of the passenger:
| were saved.
Oh, my friends. that steamer had nc
such peril as our institutions are threat
ened with, if the ignorant and unre.
strained children Of this land shall come
up in their ignorance and their CT ime Il
engineer our civil and religious in.
situations, and drive them on the
rocks. Educate this abandoned population
or they will overthrow the institutions OF
this land. Gather them into your Sab
bath-schools. l congratulate you that
many have been gathered. Go forth,
teachers, in the name Of the Lord Jesus
Christ, aud on the coming Sabbaths may
there be found gathered scores and hun
dreds of these wanderers, and instead OF
eighteen hundred in the Sabbat h-school
we shall see three thousand or four thou s.
sand, and the grace of God will come
down upon them, and the Holy Spirit will
bring them all into the truth.
Another characteristic Of live church
is one with appropriate architecture. In
the far West and amid destitute popula-
tons log church is very appropriate
the people living in log houses. But in
communities where people live in COM
Portable abodes, church uncommodious
or lacking in beauty is moral nuisance.
Because Christ was born in a manger is nc
reason why we should worship him in a
barn.
! Let the churches Of Jesus Christ be not
only comfortable, but ornate Years age
we resolved to have comfortable church.
We resolved that it should be amphitheat-
rical in shape. The prominent architect 8
Of the country, after figuring on the mat
ter a good while, said that such a church
! would not be churchly, and they would
| have nothing to do with the enterprise.
But after awhile we found an architect
willing to risk his reputation. He put up
for US the first tabernacle in amphitheat-
| rical style. We liked it. All who came
liked it. This building followed in the
same style. We believe it is appropriate
and adapted.
An angular church will have an angular
theology. The Church Of Jesus Chris 8:
ought to be great family circle, the pull
[ nit only the e re. Mace around ,x.hich thar